Gary Snyder Poet

For The Children

The rising hills, the slopes,
of statistics
lie before us.
The steep climb
of everything, going up,
up, as we all
go down.

In the next century
or the one beyond that,
they say,
are valleys, pastures,
we can meet there in peace
if we make it.

To climb these coming crests
one word to you, to
you and your children:

stay together
learn the flowers
go light

From Turtle Island, New York: New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1974.

The Present Moment

                                                      

This present moment:

That lives on,

To become

Long ago

From The Gary Snyder Reader, Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint, 1999.